comments on 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance Amendment

CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL TO: Cambridge City Council FROM: Councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler DATE: June 8, 2020 RE: Comments on 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance Amendment Fellow Councillors: Coronavirus has created uncertainty that did not exist when the 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance was first introduced. To respond to this uncertainty, Cambridge Bicycle Safety, the City Manager and City staff, and a number of City Councillors have worked jointly to prepare an amendment to the Ordinance’s original language, which has been circulated to Councillors by the City Clerk. The amendment: • Adds a new category of bike lane, the “Temporary Traffic Control Device Separated Bicycle Lane,” to allow the City more flexibility in hitting the yearly bike lane goals. The City expressed concern that coronavirus will make public processes more difficult and that it does not want to install permanent bike lanes without adequate community engagement. “Temporary Traffic Control Device Separated Bicycle Lanes” allow the City to install temporary bike lanes with traffic barrels that would count towards the City’s bike lane mileage requirements under the Ordinance as they long as the City installs flex posts or a permanent lane by the end of the applicable deadline for the street segment the temporary bike lane is installed on. • Allows the City Manager, with City Council approval, to extend any deadline contained in the Ordinance due to coronavirus-related revenue shortfalls. If coronavirus makes any of the deadlines contained in the Ordinance impossible to meet due to revenue shortfalls, the City Manager can come before the Council by July 1, 2022 with proposed dates for an extension, which the Council will have to approve. • Allows the City Manager, with City Council approval, to extend by up to four months the deadline for the completion of the city-wide protected network (see subsection C of the Ordinance) due to coronavirus-related public outreach activity delays. If coronavirus makes the deadline for the completion of the city-wide protected network impossible to meet due to public outreach activity delays, the City Manager can come before the Council by July 1, 2022 and ask for an extension of up to four months, which the Council will have to approve.